


With You In The Stars

by Northern_Lady



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Father-Daughter Relationship, Happy Ending, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 13:18:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17919536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: In this alternate universe, Thanos is defeated, Yondu is alive, and families are being made.





	With You In The Stars

The Benatar was quiet. Everyone was asleep except for Peter. He sat in the pilot’s seat unable to sleep, unable to stop thinking about what could have happened had things gone differently that day. If Yondu hadn’t been there to stop him, Peter knew he would have ruined their efforts to stop Thanos. It had been Yondu who grabbed Peter and made him back off, made him step back long enough for Parker to get the gauntlet from Thanos. The battle after that hadn’t been easy. Even without the gauntlet Thanos had been difficult to beat but in the end he had been beaten. Thanos was dead. Now the whole group of them were headed back to earth where they hoped to that Thor would be able to wield the gauntlet just once to undo some of the damage Thanos had already done. Peter only wanted Gamora back. 

Peter got up and wandered past the bunks in the ship. He stopped next to Tony Stark. The man was asleep and bruised and wounded. They had done what they could to tend his wounds but he wasn’t in good shape. Peter continued past Doctor Strange, Drax, Mantis, Parker and Nebula who all slept on the floor as not enough bunks were available for so many people. He stopped next to the bunk where Yondu slept, grateful once again not only that the man had raised him as best he could, but that he had been there to save the day this time. Things would have gone very differently if Yondu hadn’t been there. 

With a sigh, Peter turned back to head towards the pilot seat. Just as he dropped into the seat he heard a noise behind him. He glanced over to see Yondu dropping into the copilot seat. 

“Can’t sleep boy?” Yondo asked. 

“I can’t. What if we can’t get Gamora back?” 

“I hope this doesn’t sound heartless but...if we can’t get her back, you’ll find a way to move on,” Yondu said plainly. 

“Yeah, that does sound heartless. Is that what you’d do if the woman you loved were gone? Just pick up and move on?” Peter asked accusingly. 

“It’s what I did,” Yondu said with a sadness in his tone that Peter had never heard before. “I’m not saying it will be easy but sometimes we don’t got a choice.” 

“Who was she?” Peter asked, having had no idea that Yondu had lost someone once. “When did this happen?” As far as he had known, Yondu had gone from slavery to joining the ravagers. He’d never mentioned anything like having a woman or a family. 

“Twas a long time ago. Ego sent me to a planet called Luphos to look for one of his kids. Turned out the kid died. I got there just as it happened, some sort of ground rover vehicle just run him clean over. The driver was drunk. Anyhow his Mama was there and she was crying something awful while her boy was bleeding out in the street. I tried to save him. My motives were pretty selfish at the time. I just needed him to live so I could bring him back to Ego. I couldn’t save him though and somehow or other I found myself comforting his Mama...her name was Daela. She was beautiful and kind and lonely. I stayed on Luphos for weeks. Eventually I married her. For six years I stayed with Ravagers but kept going back to Luphos every leave I got. Me and her had a kid, a daughter. Daela named her Talovina ‘cause I wasn’t there when she was born to help pick out a name. Last time I saw my little girl she was four years old. The next time I went home to Luphos half the village was destroyed. I found Daela in a pile of bodies and Talovina...I never found her at all...I didn’t know it then, but it was Thanos that killed them.” Yondu finished his story and was barely able to hide the emotion in his tone. 

“If Thanos killed your family, how did stay so calm back there on Titan?” Peter asked, unable to make any sense of it. 

“Because I had to make sure that the only family I got left didn’t get themselves killed,” Yondu explained. 

***

Nebula couldn’t sleep. As she lay awake listening to Peter and Yondu talk, several things occurred to her. She had been born on Luphos. She wasn’t sure how old she had been when Thanos had come to their world. Her memory of that account wasn’t clear. A few other memories of hers however, were clear. Her mother had been named Daela. Her father had been a man that she rarely ever saw. After Thanos had taken her she had been sure that someday her real father would come for her. She had known he was on a ship somewhere and in childlike faith she had believed he would return for her eventually. She had spent so much time gazing at the stars waiting for him that a few weeks after he had taken her, Thanos had renamed her Nebula. 

Nebula’s heart was racing as she lay there listening to Peter and Yondu. She had never felt so conflicted in all her life. It seemed clear that her biological father was sitting right there, just a few feet away. He believed she was dead. He also believed that Peter was his true family. Would he even want a daughter who was now half machine? She was no longer the innocent child he had left behind. She was a broken and bitter woman and some part of her hated him for never having rescued her while another part of her still loved the one memory she had of being wrapped up in his long coat against his chest one snowy night after a long day spent sledding in the village. She lifted her head just enough to glance at Peter and Yondu. The coat was a lighter color than she had remembered but she supposed it would have faded after all these years. Nebula was pretty sure that if she didn’t do something soon, she was going to start crying. She threw her blanket aside and got to her feet with a determination to see this through, no matter how emotional it might get. 

***

Peter could not read the emotion on Nebula’s face when she approached Yondu. He could see that she was upset but whether it was anger or sadness or something else really wasn’t clear. 

“We didn’t mean to keep you awake,” Peter said apologetically. 

Nebula didn’t even acknowledge him. Her gaze was on Yondu. The older man glanced up at her with questions in his eyes. 

“I remembered something,” she said, her jaw quivering with emotion. “Actually, it’s something I never forgot. Before Thanos took me from my home world of Luphos, there was this one snowfall that had left these huge snow drifts. All the children in the village were going sledding down a great hill at the edge of town. I wanted to go but my mother was feeling ill that day so my father took me instead. Once I got there, the hill was very steep and I was afraid to go alone so he put me on his lap and rode the sled with me. By the end of the day I was too exhausted and too cold to walk home so he picked me up, wrapped me up in his coat, and carried me the whole way. That night when he put me to bed I asked him if he would be there in the morning. He said the same thing he always said. “I’m always here, except sometimes…” Nebula trailed off, unable to continue as she was trying not to cry. 

“Except sometimes I’m with you in the stars,” Yondu finished for her. 

Nebula nodded, sniffling, as a few tears fell from her one unaltered eye. 

“Talovina?” Yondu all but choked out the name. 

Nebula nodded again. “Thanos changed my name because I was always looking out at the stars, looking for you.” 

Yondu was stunned. Peter was almost sure that the man couldn’t move. Nebula reached out and touched Yondu’s coat. “The color has faded.” 

Yondu leaned forward in his seat just enough to reach Nebula and pull her into his lap. She let him wrap his coat around her. Peter got up and left the two of them alone. He was pretty sure the both of them were crying even though they were trying their best to hide it. This was a good thing, for both of them. Nebula needed a family who would never do her harm as much as Yondu did. 

“I’m sorry I never found you,” Peter heard Yondu say as he walked away. “But I aint gonna lose you again. Not ever.” 

“Me either,” Nebula agreed as she got up and moved to the empty pilot seat. “I have to keep track of you. How else will I get all the inheritance?” 

“Now I aint got no…” Yondu began and then stopping seeing that Nebula was smiling. Peter sure he had never seen her smile and here she was making an actual joke. Yondu broke out laughing, probably loud enough to wake the others on the ship but Peter didn’t care. This laughter was worth it. So worth it.


End file.
